MANILA, Philippines – “I offer no apologies, no excuses,” the 79-year-old former president Rodrigo Duterte, slower physically now, but just as pointed with his strongman words, said on Monday, October 28, at the opening of a Senate investigation into the killings done under the name of his war on drugs.
“I and I alone take full legal responsibility sa lahat ng nagawa ng mga pulis pursuant to my order, ako ang managot, at ako ang makulong, huwag ‘yung pulis na sumunod sa order ko, kawawa naman nagta-trabaho lang,” said Duterte.
(I and I alone take full legal responsibility for everything that the police have done pursuant to my order. I will be accountable, I will be the one who will go to jail, spare the police who followed my orders. I pity them, they just did their job.)
Duterte opened his statement by saying: “Do not question my policies because I offer no apologies, no excuses. I did what I had to do, and whether you believe it or not, I did it for my country.”
Duterte skipped the hearing of the House quad committee last week, the panel before whom retired police colonel Royina Garma said that the “Davao template” was used in the war on drugs, referring to an alleged system of rewards and incentives for police to kill. Garma was not present in the hearing at the Senate on Monday, citing a medical furlough.
Taking the lead of Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, different police generals who served under the Duterte administration on Monday denied that there was a policy of killing.
Duterte repeated on Monday that the killings by police officers were only made in self defense, consistent with the narrative that all who were killed resisted arrest with a gun.
But only a handful of the more than 7,000 killings in police operations were actually investigated. Randy delos Santos, uncle of the slain teen Kian delos Santos, pointed out that in his experience working for a shelter for drug war victims, an investigation was impossible during Duterte’s time. All 312 families under the care of this shelter, led by priest Flavie Villanueva, had kin who were killed by police officers.
“Sa akin pong pagtingin, wala po ni isa sa kanila ang naimbestigahan (In my view, none of their cases was investigated),” said Delos Santos, adding that there was a police modus of making families sign affidavits that they were not going to pursue cases.
In the shadow of a looming investigation back then by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Duterte launched a reinvestigation, and picked 52 showcase cases to revisit. These 52 cases were those previously probed by the police’s Internal Affairs Service (IAS), but whose subject cops were just slapped with light penalties.
Rappler’s investigation found that in 2024, under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., most of these cases or 32 of them were closed without the filing of a criminal complaint.
Dela Rosa asked Villanueva why the priest did not exert all efforts to make sure that more cases were filed.
A riled up Dela Rosa accused Villanueva of using victims for propaganda, telling the priest: “Kung hindi siya tumulong para ma-file ang mga kaso, halata na ang ginagawa niya ay puro propaganda, nagsasabi siyang ganun hindi pala siya interested na makuha ang hustisya.” (If he did not help file those cases, it’s obvious that what he’s doing is purely propaganda, he’s saying so many things but he’s not interested in getting justice.)
Unfurling a long scroll bearing the names of the 312 victims whose families are under his shelter, Villanueva told Dela Rosa, the drug war architect: “There are cases that have fallen into our hands, they are ongoing. If there are cases of “nanlaban” (fighting back), let me throw this question: isn’t it that in a crime scene, you preserve the gun used, in the 6,000 who fought back, you should have 6,000 guns with corresponding documents?”
“One way to let the public know that the war on drugs was real, let us see the 6,000 handguns,” said Villanueva, who had earlier made references to information — both public and confidential — that guns with similar serial numbers were found in crime scenes of “nanlaban“. This suggests guns of the suspects were planted, said a 2020 report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR).
“The Filipinos are anxious and distressed, self-preservation is still the first law of nature, it is instinct. It is recognized in our laws as self defense, that is why I have always told the police authorities and operatives to be mindful of the basic law of nature,” said Duterte, maintaining his line that all killings were made out of self defense despite the lack of prosecution to establish that fact.
‘The Davao template’
Former senator Leila De Lima, who spent seven years in jail for the now-dismissed charges of drug trade conspiracy, told the Senate that it is important to get the testimonies of insiders to prove a state policy of killing.
“I want to present a new angle, gusto ko sanang i-link pa talaga sa DDS [Davao Death Squad] killings ang mga nangyaring patayan under the war on drugs (I want to link the war on drugs killings to the DDS killings). I would wish to ask for permission that, that is going to be the focus of my next presentation,” said De Lima.
The DDS was allegedly led by Duterte as mayor of Davao City. The ICC’s witness, self-confessed DDS hitman Arturo Lascañas, has said that Duterte — nicknamed “Superman” — ordered kills since at least 1988. Dela Rosa also allegedly was a squad member.
The DDS is included in the scope of the ICC’s investigation.
In the House quad committee, Garma said that the drug war model was patterned after the “Davao template” and that Senator Bong Go, and his staff Irmina Espino controlled the cash flow of the rewards. Retired police colonel Edilberto Leonardo, former chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Davao region, allegedly was the chief strategist who closely coordinated with Go and Espino, according to Garma.
Go said these allegations are all politically driven, saying that he and Espino have always been known as very accommodating to everyone who wanted to air out complaints and grievances, whether they were drug-related intelligence or otherwise. This, Go said, was the reason he coordinated with Leonardo. Leonardo, too, was not present in the Senate hearing. (READ: No Garma to face Duterte in Senate drug war hearing)
“We refer these matters to CIDG, NBI [National Bureau of Investigation], ‘dun tayo tumatawag para malaman ang information, ito siguro ang tinutukoy ng ilang opisyal, including police colonel Leonardo, na sisikapin nating siyasatin,” said Go.
(That’s when I call up for information, maybe this is what’s being referred to by some officials, including police colonel Leonardo, which we will endeavor to investigate further.) – Rappler.com
